Hi, my name is Holly Friesen. I serve with ABWE in Odessa, Ukraine.
I am involved in evangelistic medical ministry and pro-life ministry. I am a family nurse practitioner and work together with another missionary doctor, Miriam Wheeler, to provide free medical care in needy villages. We provide this care on a monthly basis in villages where Ukrainian pastors are starting churches. The medical ministry is an outreach of these churches and provides us with opportunities to share the gospel.
For the last couple of years we have been working to develop a pro-life ministry in our city. We have already started working with women suffering after having abortions using the Bible study “Forgiven & Set Free”. We have a group of Ukrainian ladies that have received leader training and are being mentored by my colleague Dr. Miriam as they lead groups themselves. We have 42 women who have already completed the course and their testimonies of healing are amazing. We are planning to open a pregnancy care center in Odessa in Feb of 2014. Our desire is that the center will be used to help women who are facing unplanned or crisis pregnancies to choose to give life to their babies. However, our ultimate goal is that this ministry would be used to show people the way to eternal life in Christ.
These next several months are crucial for the development of the pro-life ministry. We are currently sharing about the ministry in Odessa churches in order to recruit volunteers and raise support. Pray that people will be burdened to get involved and that we will have wisdom as we prepare our first group of volunteers. We are also looking for a location to rent for the center. Pray that the Lord will lead us to the right location and will provide the funds needed to get it ready. Pray that we will have wisdom in knowing how to advertise our center in order to reach those who are considering abortion.
For more information and updates you can check out our website: www.ukrainemedical.abwe.org
@2013 Thrive